Turkington tops Rockingham test session

Thu 19th March 2009 Colin Turkington has taken an early advantage ahead of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship, topping the timesheets at this afternoon’s official test session at Rockingham.

Turkington set a best time of 1:23.609 around the Rockingham International Super Sportscar Circuit, which was just under four tenths of a second quicker than Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi in second. Turkington’s Team RAC teammate Stephen Jelley was third fastest.

The top five drivers in today’s test session all set times that were quicker than the 2008 pole position time. VX Racing’s Matt Neal completed the most laps during the four-hour session, with 66. Turkington was the next busiest completing 64 laps. Tom Chilton’s Team Aon Focus only registered three laps on the TSL Timing systems, but actually completed considerably more. Paul O’Neill took to the wheel of Martyn Bell’s Honda Integra for parts of the session.

Full times to follow.